When we sat down facing each other, I could hardly believe this woman was the former Vice Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Regional People's Government, now Vice-Secretary of the autonomous regional Committee of the CPC and its committee of the CPPCC. This plain looking and soberly dressed woman is Pasang, a high official grown from a serf.
Looking at her weather-worn face, I guessed her age. What surprised me is that it wasn't until 1984 that she knew when she was born. She told me once she accidentally found that she was one year younger than her younger brother. So she went to ask her father and elder sister, but they could not remember clearly. Then she went to the village where she was born to inquire of those who were born in the same year as she was and found out that for decades she thought she was three years younger than her actual age.
In 1937, Pasang was born in Gongar County, Tibet. Her parents, elder sister, younger brother and herself were all serfs. When she was very young, her mother died of an infectious disease. Not long after her mother's death, she was summoned to be a serf by the serf owner of her mother and was then sent to another aristocratic family in a suburb of Lhasa to continue to be a serf.
"Since I could remember, I labored for the slave owner's family, doing whatever chores in the fields or at home the master demanded I do," Pasang recalled. "Like herding and milking cows, collecting firewood, making fires, waiting upon the daughter of the master. I toiled all the time without any rest, nor any personal freedom. All year round, I did not have enough to eat and wear. We serfs really lived a life worse than beasts of burden."
Indeed, it is hard for us living in a civilized society to imagine Pasang's serf life. During the day, she toiled for the master but could not rest well even at night. Everyday, she huddled herself on the ground by the mistress' bed, without any bedding. The mistress had a habit of drinking tea several times a night. Pasang had to attend the fire and keep the tea water warm. Whenever the mistress called her, she had to get up to serve her tea and help her when she needed to pass water. Pasang was in her teens, an age fond of sleep, let alone the fact that she had toiled for a whole day. Sometimes, the mistress would take up her shoe to beat her right in the face when she failed to wake up at call.
Nonetheless Pasang had to get up at daybreak and start working. Sometimes when she went to buy meat for the master, it was still dark outside and many dogs were on her way to the market. Chased and bit by dogs, the thin Pasang often fell down to the ground. If the meat got dirty, she could neither escape the scolding and beating nor have anything to dress the wounds, which went festering and did not heal for a long time. Until now there are many scars left by the wounds.
The master's daughter was about the same age as Pasang, but the latter had to wait upon her at her beck and call. Pasang still remembers the suffering she endured when the young mistress having her menses, had dysmenorrhoeas. At that time, Tibetans believed the diseased could not sleep, or they would have bad luck. Pasang then had to spend the nights on-watch not to let the young mistress fall asleep.
"I could not have any sleep, but had to work as usual. The suffering I was subjected to in the old days I could not tell in a few days. Many times, I ran to the Lhasa River attempting to jump into the river to finish all the tortures. But thinking that I would not be able to see my father, brother and sister if I died, I thought I should wait until after seeing them again."
In 1951, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) arrived in Lhasa. seeing people working and living freely on the PLA's farm located on the opposite side of the village, Pasang envied them very much. Once she slipped out and listened to one PLA man talking about why the serf had a different life from the serf owner, what the society would be like in the future and the like.
"Their stories attracted me so much. Later, I slipped out again to listen, but soon I was called back to work and was beaten by the mistress. I dared not to go again. But since then I got the idea to run away to the PLA," Pasagn recalled. "But I was very superstitious then, fearing punishment from God, because the mistress often scared me by telling me stories she made up, saying someone stole things from his master and ran away, but was caught by God, who beat him up and sent him back to the master."
One day in 1956, Pasang was beaten hard by the mistress for no reason at all and locked up by the young mistress. Struck with an iron bar, she fainted. When she came to and found the door open, she decided to run away. "Without shoes or any luggage, but only the shabby clothes that could barely cover my body, I left the house. Not daring to go to Lhasa, I wanted to run to a place further away. I had heard the PLA was building an airport in Damung in the north of Lhasa, I decided to run to Damung. Because there were some manors along the way to Damung, I was afraid of being recognized so I ran in the mountains during the day and along the road in the night." Fearing to be found and sent back to be a serf again, she decided to change her name. Looking up at the stars in the sky, she changed her name Gesang to Pasang, meaning star in Tibetan.
It was in August and there were some peas in the fields harvestless. Pasang picked up some peas after it was dark.  Later when she went further north, there were no peas in the fields, she found some wild fruits in the mountain to allay her hunger. Walking five days and six nights, she finally arrived at the airport in Damung. She explained to some PLA men she was a laborer sent to replace someone who had gone back and they agreed to let her stay, doing some odd jobs at the construction site. When it was getting colder, some PLA men, seeing her unable to keep off the cold in her ragged clothes, suggested she go to Lhasa where it was much warmer. Pasang did not have the guts to tell the truth that she was a run-away serf. When she was in Lhasa, she dared not to go anywhere, fearing to be found and sent back.
"At first I did something helping the cook wash vegetables and tending the kitchen fire, "Pasang said. "Later I was sent to learn medicine treatment. I could neither read nor understand Han's speaking. The teachers gave us lessons, but I could understand nothing. The other students were similar to me and we could only do some simple things like making swabs and dressing bruises. So we demanded to learn to read and write first and we were then sent to study at the Tibetan Cadres' School."
In 1957, the central government decided to run schools for Tibetan students in inland cities. Hearing the news Pasang volunteered to enroll and was eagerly looking forward to starting at once.
"I became a formal student of the Tibetan School in Shaanxi and got to know many hows and whys," Pasang said. "For instance, I didn't understand why some were serf owners and we were serfs, believing that everything was decided by fate and their good fate was cultivated by them in their previous existence."
In 1959, an armed rebellion happened in Tibet. Pasang and her classmates who had anticipated studying for six years in the school ended their studies ahead of schedule and returned to Tibet to undergo democratic reform. Pasang was sent to Nedong County in Shannan are. "Tibet was just liberated and many cadres were needed, including interpreters," she said. I was taken on as an interpreter too. At the Tibetan school we had only learned pinyin, some simple Chinese characters and the 30 letters of Tibetan, but after we returned to Tibet, we were all viewed as precious. In fact, we knew little. Since it was the Party which freed me from the serf owner, I thought of paying a debt of gratitude to the Party. I could do nothing without ability, so I had to study hard."
The pinyin learned at the school was very useful to Pasang. When she went to the grassroots villages during the day to check the population or count the number of livestock, she first took everything down in pinyin and then consulted the dictionary later when she had time. A Xinhua Dictionary was always with her since then and she has kept the habit till now.
Pasang felt the advantage that serfdom brought to her is she never worries about hardships and difficulties because she has suffered a lot in the past. But she also knew clearly her disadvantage was illiteracy. "Without education and knowledge was the biggest difficulty in my work, so I made great efforts to learn. In the daytime, I went to mobilize the masses and had meetings in the evening. When I returned home, it was often very late. But no matter how late it was, I would study for a while before going to bed. I also studied Tibetan while learning Chinese. Apart from learning by myself, I learned from Han comrades working together with me."
In 1971, Pasang took the post as the Vice Chairman of Tibet Autonomous Region and Vice-Secretary of the region's Party Committee. Along with her promotion, she sensed even more the difficulties caused by her low educational level and lack of wide range of knowledge. "I could only study assiduously," she said. Under her persistent urge, she became a student of the Central Institute of Ethnicities in 1981, a special one with the highest position among the students. Having a long-felt need satisfied, she concentrated on her study thirstily. The institute asked her to choose courses. She felt she needed everything and wanted to study everything, so she chose many subjects, including Chinese and Tibetan languages, ancient Tibetan, legislation, religion, history and so on. The next year she cut off some courses under some teachers' suggestion so as to make her study more effective.
Being a member of the Central party Committee and the Standing Committee of National People's Congress concurrently, she had to attend many meetings that took up much of her study time. Consequently she twice politely refused the invitation of the school asking her to take the students of the Tibetan class to visit coastal cities. She said she wanted to seize the precious chance to learn more.
Pasang is now in her 60s. she said she continued to study all the time. "To work with the Party committee, I should also know law, economy, science and technology. Moreover, to participate in politics and discuss political affairs as Vice Chairman of the regional CPPCC, I would not have the right to supervise the government's administration if I know nothing." For instance, she said, to carry on agricultural modernization in Tibet that lagged behind the inland provinces and regions, I should go down to the grassroots to explain to the masses how to farm in a scientific way.
For years Pasang has been in charge of works in religion and the united front. She thinks religion is very important in Tibet, which is challenging because of its highly policy-related feature. In the past, all people in Tibet believed in a certain religion, now the Party's policies and law have clearly provided that citizens enjoy the freedom to believe in religion, but to engage in feudal superstition is not allowed.
"The problem I met was how to deal with concrete matters. Particularly in the countryside, some farmers would invite lamas to figure out when to sow seeds, which direction the house they build should face, on what day to start making wine from highland barley. Many reckonings are totally groundless. So, I had to talk with the farmers patiently, persuading them to act more rationally."
Because she experienced too many difficulties in her work and had too many things to learn, Pasang chose to remain single all her life. She had been in love with a man working together with her. Later the two took posts as the heads of two counties. When Pasang was transferred to work in the autonomous region, she felt the huge pressure of work on her. Thinking it was too much a burden that she had to give birth to babies and manage the household chores after getting married, she wrote to her boyfriend proposing parting. At first her boyfriend could not understand her and wrote to her inquiring, "Do you not love me any longer? Are you going to seek connection with a man of higher level?" It was not like that, Pasang replied. She was willingly choosing to remain single all her life. "He is a nice person and he waited for me for more than two years before marrying," Pasang told me. "Many of my colleagues and leaders, including Elder Sister Kang Keqing (former President of the All-China Women's Federation) were all concerned about me. They wanted to act as a matchmaker for me, and talked with me, asking what conditions I would require for the man. But I did not want to change my decision."
"To be single, if I was full, so was the whole family. If I went down to villages, I just locked the door, without worrying about anything," She laughed. "Thus I could manage to find time to learn and concentrate on my work and study."
In 1984, Pasang's elder sister died. Before her death, she entrusted her son to Pasang, who graduated from a university last year. Later Pasang's younger brother's two daughters also came to Lhasa to live with her. They younger daughter is going to enroll in a junior high school, but the elder one never attended school. When she arrived at Pasang's home, she could neither read nor write. Pasang patiently persuaded her to learn and taught her to learn Tibetan letters first. Then together with her nephew, she taught her primary school books. She also brought her a Xinhua Dictionary after teaching her how to look up a word in the dictionary.
"Now she can read materials of elementary level. I'm glad about that. Thought I have not married, I never feel lonely, nor regret my choice."
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